Seattle songsters Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons give life to voices that have long been silenced in American culture. Their award-winning performances are highlighted by story-telling that, rather than bringing the past to life, vividly shows how the past still lives in the present. Through their songs, audiences witness current issues crop up again and again in folk songs, dance tunes, acoustic blues, and prison ballads.

Ben & Joe bounce from fiddle & banjo breakdowns to a cappella field hollers, early jazz to gospel songs featuring Piedmont guitar style and rattlin’ bones. With the same versatility that won them the International Blues Challenge in 2016, and allowed them to record with National Heritage Fellow Phil Wiggins, the duo celebrates the ways Americans have triumphed over oppression through the vitality of their art. Audiences walk away from Ben & Joe’s concerts and workshops inspired to learn more of their own heritage, and engage more deeply with their communities.

Workshop:  Redefining Protest through Music.  Acts of protest tap into layers of our heritage and identity that strengthen the foundations of what we are fighting for.  So how can we root ourselves more deeply in our heritage and identity, thereby strengthening our fight against injustice?

Using roots music as a lens, Ben Hunter and Joe Seamons draw on stories, songs, and the people behind protest movements from around the world, connecting them with layered conceptions of heritage.  By redefining the terms “protest” and “heritage”, Hunter and Seamons invite audiences to explore and reimagine our shared humanity.